Activists Awarded 'Alternative Nobels'

Activists Awarded 'Alternative Nobels'

Sima Samar, one of the 2012 Right Livelihood laureates visits a mother and child clinic in Shaheedan district of Central Bamyan Province, 2009. (Picture: Shuhada Organization)

The Right Livelihood Awards, also known as "Alternative Nobel Prizes," were announced on Thursday in Stockholm.

This year's winners include Sima Samar of Afghanistan, a long-time human rights activists in Afghanistan, who's worked extensively for the rights of women and girls, nonviolence expert and founder of the Albert Einstein Institution Gene Sharp, the Campaign Against Arms Trade, and Hayrettin Karaca of Turkey, a lifelong environmental activist.

“This year’s group of four Laureates highlights the essential conditions for global peace and security: effective nonviolent resistance, a recognition that the arms industry is part of the problem, human and women’s rights, and the preservation of our precious ecological resources,” said Ole von Uexkull, Executive Director of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation.

The Awards will be presented in December in the Swedish Parliament.

* * *

The work of Gene Sharp is documented in the film How to Start a Revolution from director Ruaridh Arrow:

Further

Academics are increasingly, ingeniously fighting back against an Orwellian "Professor Watchlist" aimed at exposing "radical" teachers. The list has inspired online trolls to name their own suspects - Albus Dumbledore, Dr. Pepper, Mr. Spock - and a Watchlist Redux to honor not trash targets from Jesus to teachers daring to "think critically about power." Now 100 Notre Dame professors have asked to join the list in solidarity, proclaiming, "We wish to be counted among those you are watching."